The capital of Georgia's separatist region of South Ossetia came under heavy fire early Friday, just hours after Georgia's president declared a unilateral cease-fire, news reports and the rebel government said, according to AP. «The assault is coming from all directions» said a brief statement on the separatist government's Web site. Officials in South Ossetia and Georgia could not be reached by telephone by The Associated Press for confirmation early Friday. The Interfax news agency, reporting from the South Ossetian capital Tskhinvali, cited Vladimir Ivanov, an official of the peacekeeping forces in South Ossetia, as saying the fire included salvos by truck-launched Grad missiles. A week of clashes and escalating tension in South Ossetia has raised fears of an all-out war that could draw in Russia, which has close ties with South Ossetia's separatist leadership. Russia asked the United Nations Security Council for an emergency meeting, which was scheduled at unusually short notice at 11 p.m. Thursday (0300 GMT Friday) in New York. It was not clear if the meeting would be private or formal and open, or whether any statement would result. The meeting was requested «in connection with Georgia's aggressive actions against South Ossetia, an internationally recognized party to conflict,» said Maria Zakharova, press secretary of the Russian U.N. mission, according to the Russian news service Itar-Tass. On Thursday evening, Georgian President Mikhail Saakashvili had announced a unilateral cease-fire in a television broadcast in which he also urged South Ossetian separatist leaders to enter talks on resolving the conflict. South Ossetia had also agreed to hold fire until a meeting Friday between the region's deputy prime minister and Georgia's top envoy for separatist issues, Russian news agencies reported, citing the head of the peacekeeping force in the region, Marat Kulakhmetov. Saakashvili also proposed that Russia could become a guarantor of wide-ranging autonomy for South Ossetia, if the region remains under Georgian control. Georgian officials have alleged that Moscow is provoking the recent clashes.
